Restriction on Purchase of WoW Token, WoW Hotfixes - November 17, 2023

>"Players will no longer be allowed to purchase a WoW Token from the Auction House or the in-game Shop for gold if they have not spent real money to purchase and consume at least 30 days of game time (a “Time Limited License”) since 2017."

My sides.

I'm guessing this is meant to prevent old and no longer used hacked accounts from buying tokens.

That's gotta be a pretty limited number of players at this point, right? I know WoD got a few people to the gold cap, but how many people have accumulated enough gold to keep rocking with WoW Tokens for six years straight? I'm assuming that means they probably bought Legion and all of the subsequent expansion upgrades with Tokens too.

I'm not part of that group, unfortunately, but can't really say I'm bothered. A single $15 fee once every six years?

In before some people act like the sky is falling.

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Originally Posted by Esper

I'm guessing this is meant to prevent old and no longer used hacked accounts from buying tokens.

Good call. They did say it's for the integrity of the game.

I know a guy like this, ran five garrisons during WoD. Good on Blizz to... teach him a lesson?

Originally Posted by Malrune

I know a guy like this, ran five garrisons during WoD. Good on Blizz to... teach him a lesson?

Well... I mean... asking you to pay 15 bucks once every EIGHT YEARS to play the game is pretty reasonable I'd say... I ran 3 garrisons... finally ran out of tokens mid BFA lol...

Originally Posted by Esper

I'm guessing this is meant to prevent old and no longer used hacked accounts from buying tokens.

yeah bot could just farm for free without the need to put any real information.

Originally Posted by Ehrenpanzer

Well... I mean... asking you to pay 15 bucks once every EIGHT YEARS to play the game is pretty reasonable I'd say... I ran 3 garrisons... finally ran out of tokens mid BFA lol...

They nerfed Garrison gold b4 Legion launched idgi.

Originally Posted by Esper

I'm guessing this is meant to prevent old and no longer used hacked accounts from buying tokens.

This and bots that farm gold to run more accounts to farm more gold. Normal players aren't affected.

Will be interesting to see how this affects the token price.

Originally Posted by Armael

They nerfed Garrison gold b4 Legion launched idgi.

You could make a LOT, and I mean a MotherF**king Brinks truck worth of gold with 3-5 garrisons and a bank alt before Legion.....lol... also, keep in mind when the tokens launched, there was zero cap on how many you could buy in a month, AND the starting price for them was like..15k? 20k? something like that... So the players like me who had literally millions of gold just bought up years worth of tokens right off the bat...

Originally Posted by Ehrenpanzer

You could make a LOT, and I mean a MotherF**king Brinks truck worth of gold with 3-5 garrisons and a bank alt before Legion.....lol... also, keep in mind when the tokens launched, there was zero cap on how many you could buy in a month, AND the starting price for them was like..15k? 20k? something like that... So the players like me who had literally millions of gold just bought up years worth of tokens right off the bat...

Yeah, before I stopped playing in Shadowlands, I had spent zero actual money on WoW since the WoW token came out (also bought games like D4 using WoW tokens -> B.net balance). I wasn't even one of those "I got multiple gold capped chars" kind of player, I always thought of myself as a casual gold maker where I'd push hard at the start of an expansion (where it's easy to make bank quickly) and be low-key making gold for the rest of the expansion as a side-gig to hardcore mythic raiding progression. Even though I haven't played WoW in a while, I still have a sizable B.net balance left on my account from cashing in WoW tokens over time.

I think at the end of WoD the token price in my region was 27k max? Was definately below 20k for most of the time between the token's introduction and the end of WoD. Considering that my guild would pay millions of gold for mythic raiding gear on the BMAH without blinking back in WoD, buying up tokens was just a no-brainer for most of us as our personal funds were just as good as the guild's funds.

Kinda silly how they're going about this, but I suppose you could just pay for a month then remove your credit card info (or whatever they force you to pay with nowadays). If this was a policy going forward where you'd have to spend X amount of real money on the game or your account would be locked out, then I think there'd be a bit more outrage to be had.

Originally Posted by Kathranis

That's gotta be a pretty limited number of players at this point, right? I know WoD got a few people to the gold cap, but how many people have accumulated enough gold to keep rocking with WoW Tokens for six years straight? I'm assuming that means they probably bought Legion and all of the subsequent expansion upgrades with Tokens too.

I mean I personally have been doing it longer than 6 years, remember Diablo 3 had a BMAH, I amassed quite a decent amount there which I was using for gametime. I had enough to last until the token was a thing and haven't spent real money on Blizz products since, hell I don't even know how long anymore, 10 years? So I'm a rare situation where I'll have to buy a month of game time but can I even buy one if my sub does not run out until 2026 because of tokens? Guess I'll be finding out.

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Originally Posted by Foolicious

This and bots that farm gold to run more accounts to farm more gold. Normal players aren't affected.

Will be interesting to see how this affects the token price.

Already up about 25k in the past 24 hours but could just be because it is a weekend too, it has been up and down since Blizzcon.

I haven't spent any real money since Diablo 3 (year 2012?)
If I remember correctly, I actually took real money out from battle.net balance until Blizzard didn't allow.

Then I bought Destiny 2, Diablo 4, etc.

Currently, I have 10 classic time token and $200 in battle.net balance.
If I use battle.net balance to buy 30-day game time, does that count as real money?

I always get lots of gold after an expansion release, because a BoE drop can get me a time token.

I haven't paid for a sub since the Token came out, as I've generally been pretty good at making a steady amount of gold since MOP onwards, but it kicked off with WOD and Legion where I could quite easily make the amount for a Token in a week. Even still with Dragonflight, I'm able to make enough Gold per month to afford a Token, although unlike previous times I no longer have a full Battle.net Balance to buy Store Mounts, although I do sometimes get some during sales.

If this is a legit reasoning and not a money grabbing scheme then I don't think it's the end of the world. I hate the amount of trading/services that exist in the game, having recently seen the Services Chat in game I forgot how disgusting it is and if it removes some of that scum I think that's better for the game and helps with compromised/scammed accounts so be it.

I'm unsure exactly where I stand or fully if this affects me. Whilst I haven't paid for a Sub since it came out I do buy Physical Collector's Editions and Dragonflight came with 30 Days Game time so does that count? I'll assume the worst and say probably not, so I might have to buy a one month sub to keep playing and then back to Tokens likely.

As for Token Prices, will have to see after 21st November. Based on EU since this announcement 3 hours ago Token has jumped from 360k to 395k so I expect it to keep rising. I wouldn't be surprised to see the Token hit record highs above 500k so they might end up being more expensive permanently.

Oh, it’s the catch bots I see. I thought they were trying to restrict players from farming gold to pay for sub. Gg blizz

Were there THAT many "Garrison incidents"?
Why is this happening?
Other exploits other than Garrison stuff?

Maybe before the Auction House rework there were lots of people who managed to get insane gold...no idea.

Originally Posted by GUZ

Ahahahahahahaha and we thought Microsoft was gonna be better wtf!?!?

You're acting like 15$ in 6 years is some big deal. It's obviously to catch bot accounts.

So many missing the point here. Its to make sure old accounts which is easy to get can't buy game time for gold, which is incredibly easy to get. These accounts are used for botting, exploiting, advertisment etc Adding a real money requirement make sure that these companies doing these things will have to spend actual money to keep doing the shit they are doing and will deter a lot of undesirables from the game.

Stop acting like this is something they are doing to for a financial gain. This isn't making them money, this is getting rid of bots and hackers

Originally Posted by GUZ

Ahahahahahahaha and we thought Microsoft was gonna be better wtf!?!?

acting against bot is not better ? What ?

Originally Posted by glowpipe

So many missing the point here. Its to make sure old accounts which is easy to get can't buy game time for gold, which is incredibly easy to get. These accounts are used for botting, exploiting, advertisment etc Adding a real money requirement make sure that these companies doing these things will have to spend actual money to keep doing the shit they are doing and will deter a lot of undesirables from the game.

Stop acting like this is something they are doing to for a financial gain. This isn't making them money, this is getting rid of bots and hackers

Since when the bot wasting 10 bucks one time is getting rid of it?
I dont get it...

"to preserve the integrity of the game, we will limit the ability to purchase wow tokens with gold unless that player has given us cash in the past 6 years (aka the time frame where most people have probably quit the game)".

i really want to like blizzard again and come back to wow but they make it so hard.